Farmers Target Field Burning Limit

Idaho officials want to modify a ban that prohibits farmers from burning their fields on weekends and holidays. They also recommend allowing burning when ozone readings are higher than current rules permit. The changes are being proposed to help farmers in Southern Idaho, where the majority of the state’s 65,000 acres of fields are torched each year. Many Southern Idaho growers are “weekend” farmers, who must take a day off from their full-time jobs to burn crop stubble during the week, said Mary Anderson, the Department of Environmental Quality’s smoke manager program coordinator. Current ozone rules also prohibit agricultural burning on some days that rank as good air quality days under federal standards, she said/ Becky Kramer , SR. More here. (2006 Jesse Tinsley SR photo: Idaho Department of Agriculture watches as a Rathdrum Prairie grass field goes up in smoke)

Question: Would you be upset if southern Idaho farmers had there way and field burning was allowed again on the Rathdrum Prairie on weekends and holidays?